Mad Props Project

What is the Mad Props Project?

The Mad Props Project is the perfect mixture between California's ballot measures and the art of podcast making! For 8 weeks we researched and studied the different propositions, everything from the pros and cons, real people who will be affected and where money will go if they pass. Along with this, we learned with how to edit audio on Audacity, conduct thoughtful interviews and record using a Yeti.

We created a website as a way to showcase each of our podcasts and go more into depth about the different propositions. If you would like to know more about the other podcasts you can click the link below:

Group photo at our field trip to Balboa Park, we conducted interviews with strangers to practice our interview skills and gather audio about people's opinions on our prop.

3 Things I'm Proud Of

This is my prep sheet for our Socratic seminar in class about Prop 57. I chose this sheet because I took time to really understand each argument. I think you can read anything but being able to understand it, especially when it's as complicated as Prop 57, is very important! I put myself in the different side's shoes to get an idea of where they're coming from and this helped a lot to understand each argument and rebuttal.

This is the Podcast Hackathon Squad Assessment from the prequel project. If you want to learn more about that you can click this link:

I chose this as something I'm proud of because I really took time to think about what I appreciated about each member and what they were able to contribute. I think when you take the time to do this you really start to feel grateful for each person and you build a respect for each other.

This is the worksheet I had to fill out after listening to a podcast, called "High on the Corporate Ladder." I chose this worksheet because I learned a lot about what I can put into a podcast to enhance different parts and engage listeners. The podcast didn't only teach me what to do but also what I shouldn't do. I took the parts where I lost focus or started to get bored and asked myself, "Why did I lose focus?" My answer to that question told me what I needed to avoid in the making of my podcast.

The Pitch

Coming up with our burning question was actually really difficult. Because the most surprising thing about Prop 57 is about how there is a loophole where rape could be considered nonviolent, I think all three squads in our voltron group wanted to focus on that. This was a problem because all three of our burning questions ended up being a reworded version of, "What makes a crime nonviolent?"

To get to our final burning questions, we started off with asking ourselves, "What do we want to know?" We were thinking that the podcast would be way more interesting if we were uncovering things to not only the listeners but also to us. With that in mind, we decided our burning question was "How does prison affect your life?" ​

Our magic formula ended up being, "This is a podcast about a person talking about their experiences based on committing a violent crime, and it’s interesting because it directly shows how being arrested and going to prison can affect you and your life."

Our potential "lawnmower guys" was anyone that had experience with being in prison before. We wanted to see if there was such a thing as rehabilitation and how prison affects your life from people's experiences. ​

Interview Map

When we originally started writing our interview we didn't have a set interviewee. We knew we wanted to interview someone who had been to prison before but we didn't know the exact person. We made up generic questions and once we found out we were interviewing Reginald, we researched a little about him and personalized the questions for him.

Tape Logs

The events leading up to finding our interviewee were very trying. We were kind of stuck in this phase where we weren't being productive at all. Dr. P helped us out a little bit and helped us get find this man named Reginald Washington. We looked him up and his organization and learned that Reginald had been in prison for 15 years. He was able to rehabilitate and become the founder and CEO of Project A.W.A.R.E., an organization that helps kids deal with their problems nonviolently. We called him and set a date and time for the interview.

We did the interview over phone so we used these special headphones that have a microphone in the earbud. It was plugged into a handheld recorder, and it was able to record what Reginald was saying and what Matthew was asking him. We conducted our interview in Dr. P's office and it was very nerve-racking. We didn't have headphone splitters in, until the end, so we only heard one end of the interview for the most part. When we listened back to the interview, while tape logging, I think the best part of the interview was definitely hearing Reginald open up about how he couldn't be there for his daughter. It was powerful and it really showcased what inspired him.

A tape log is when you listen back to all your audio and write down notes. You want to write at least one word for every sentence, that way when you start editing it will be really easy to look for your audio. ​​​

The Team: Matthew, Anthony, me and Ashley

Script Outline & Script

For the script outline, I knew what I wanted to start off with and I kind of knew what I wanted the middle to sound like. As I was writing it, I just wrote down things that seemed fit and flowed. When doing this I realized we needed to figure out our message and put that as our conclusion.

The first draft of our script was nothing compared to the one above. We probably had a half a page at most, and I don't even think we had interviewed Reginald at that point. We were just going off of how we thought the interview was going to play out. Once the interview was done we had the content we needed to polish up our script. We added narration to support what Reginald was saying and help guide listeners to what they should be looking out for. Even with this new and clean script we still had to make changes along the way. When you start editing, you come to realize that certain things just don't sound that well together. The script changed everyday as we were editing. We were constantly recording new narration. I made up this system where we highlight all of the lines we needed to record or rerecord so it would be easier to keep track. I think that really helped us stay organized.

We talked with producers from Gimlet about how to make good podcasts.

Reginald's Story: The Podcast

The making of this podcast was not easy AT ALL. We had to overcome a lot of obstacles to get to our final podcast. We first edited out all of the golden moments from Reginald's interview. This way it would be easier just have the different clips rather than one long interview. We started looking for other audio we could use, like Youtube videos and free music downloads. We recorded narration and rerecorded if it sounded bad.

Editing on Audacity

Our school is a project based school. So it's very hard to find a quiet place to record. And when we eventually found that place, there was always soemthing that was wrong. Maybe it was the computer one day, or the mic another day but there was always something wrong. Also, editing is for the most part a one man job. I felt like I wasn't contributing as much as I could have with editing, so I helped a lot with rewriting the script and looking for other audio to put into our podcast. ​

A golden moment was definitely when our group would sing together. It made us laugh and took our minds off of all the stress and deadlines for a little while. We didn't get along the whole project so to have those moments to remember is amazing. ​

Exhibiton

At exhibition I remember feeling really nervous going up on stage. I've never been the most confident person at public speaking. When we were listening to our podcast with everyone in the audience, as I heard the lines that reminded me of this moment and that moment I couldn't help but laugh. The audience may have been paying attention to Reginald's words but I was reliving the project through his words. ​

If my teacher told me that we were doing a project similar to this one, I would tell him/her to make sure you know how to use every single piece of equipment that is required to produce these podcasts. And one day in class, just explain it to everyone. One thing I regret is not being familiar with anything that had to do with editing and recording. I feel like if I had one day in class where someone was explaining to me the tech problems would have been way easier to solve.

I always say this but this project really emphasized that communication is the key to successful group work. There is nothing more important than communication. The times when our group wasn't productive was due to lack of communication. We thrived when we talked to each other. And those moments in this project will always remind for future projects. ​